New Show is Like Live-Action Version of 'The Incredibles'

Fans of superheroes on TV will lose one series this year (Heroes) and gain another, ABC's No Ordinary Family, which may seem very, very familiar to anybody who has seen Pixar's The Incredibles. The show follows a family of four, including a son and daughter, all of whom have super powers. Dad is super strong, Mom is fast, Sis can read minds and Bro can, umm, do calculus? Oh, but it's not exactly like The Incredibles because they weren't born with their abilities. As seen in the NOF trailer, they acquire them while on vacation when their plane crashes into a body of water with "a phosphorescence." Which makes it like Fantastic Four. Which is funny since the show stars Michael Chiklis, who played The Thing in the Fantastic Four movies. Of course, Fantastic Four was also an obvious inspiration for The Incredibles, so the show isn't off the hook for its slight deviations.

So, should Disney be unleashing its army of lawyers? Well, as it turns out No Ordinary Family is produced by the Disney-owned ABC. How about Marvel Comics? Oh yeah, Disney owns them now, too. So even if supporting star Romany Malco ends up with Frozone-like powers, or Linda Hunt shows up looking like Edith Head, or the family does the obligatory sitcom thing of having a new addition, and the baby is named Jack-Jack, there will still likely be no legal ramification. Anyway, this isn't the first time a popular movie unofficially spun-off a (likely unpopular) sitcom. Anyone remember ABC's Baby Talk, which ripped off Look Who's Talking? Of course, like Dukes of Hazzard (inspired by The Moonshiners) and What's Happening!! (influenced by Cooley High) before it, Baby Talk was co-created by the same person who wrote the loosely related predecessor. As far as I know, Brad Bird has had no involvement with NOF.

Check out the trailer for No Ordinary Family, which debuts this fall, after the jump.